Over the weekend, I connencted my wife's Samsung Android phone the my computer, which has Samsung Kies software, over USB. My intent was to simply copy some photos and the address book to my PC. I did that, then I was told that a new version of firmware was available and do I want to install it. I made the mistake of clicking "yes."

The download and install took about 30 minutes. But, when the phone started, it locked up and would not boot. It just frize at the AT&T Rethink possible screen. About then, I was thinking about the likely, not the possible.

I tried pulling the battery, but that didn;t help so I called Samsung. They recommended doing a hard reset. I really hesitiated because the phone was unlocked and it runs on T-Mobile. I feared that the phone would one again lock in AT&T. The hard reset worked and didn't lock the phone back on AT&T, but many settings and all the apps got blown away. Fortunately, I was able to restore the most important part, the contacts. I then had to reinstall all the apps, but only a few.

Now, I'll spend the next few weeks tweaking the settings because hte phone beeps a times she doesn't want, like in meetings. Every time I make a change now, I connect to Kies and back up the phone.

I had similar problems once with an iOS upgrade, though not with iOS7.

I've had a Nexus 7 for about 2 years now and have not experienced the screen flicker, unresponsive touchscreen or any other hardware problem. I haven't used Bluetooth much with it, so I can't speak to that. You got bad hardware and should have returned it instantly for exchange or refund.

Android apps are just software and the quality varies a lot because the barriers to entry are much lower than in the iThing universe. That is both a good and a bad thing, but I'll take the freedom and diversity that comes with it.

Two years ago, I changed companies and left my Blackberry behind to get a new smartphone, unwittingly falling into the Android app conundrum. I found that it took about $60 in apps to make my awful Droid Global 2 smartphone acceptable as a corporate device. Then came the hardware/software issues, lockups, slow dialup, and other irritations so numerous I became numb to them. Being an old PC guy, I'm not easily intimidated by glitches and bugs, but I was hoping that they would resolve themselves as I updated software and drivers. After nine months, they did not.

I'm convinced that it takes 6-9 months for most users to find out they really hate their Android devices. After my phone locked up coming into the SLC airport, causing me to get a speeding ticket, I determined that this phone would one day kill me (literally). Fortunately for me, it was time for an upgrade on my Verizon plan, so I took the plunge into iPhone world and haven't looked back. Yes, my geeky friends all bug me about getting a wimpy iPhone because I couldn't hack it in the Wild-West-like realm of Android software, but I'm comfortable in my own iPhone skin.

The primary problem with Android apps is that they are totally unverified by anyone but the developer. A friend of mine who write apps says that most smartphone app developers have a definite strategy -- develop your app for Android first, as they never reject anything. Then, submit your app to the iTunes store, expecting Apple to reject it a few times because it is touching areas of the OS that it shouldn't. Now my geeky software friends tell me that Android software all eventually resolve themselves by popular demand, but why should I waste my time doing all this just so it doesn't take 30 seconds for my smartphone to dial a contact? When I want to dial up a friend, I don't want the phone to run off check his Facebook status - just dial him up, and NOW!

There's no way you can tell me that bodacious processors alone with solve the problem of sorry software. If the Android community ever somehow gets a software-vetting process in place, then I might come back. For now, I'm an Apple guy.

This should really be updated with the new Nexus 7! All the ipad owners have to scowl at me as I have my keyboard/mouse combo RDPing my desktop and running Solidworks. Of course, the 7 inch screen means that for the 1900X1200 pixels, you really need a set of magnifiers to distinguish each and every pixel. there are no problems whatsoever with my $20 bluetooth keyboard. But I must admit, my PC bluetooth mouse is a bit finnicky. Don't understand why a company as big as Google can have issues with a 20 year old bluetooth protocol. But in the end, it is much more portable than an ipad, has more functionality, and is much less expensive...

I now have a nexus7 and an ipad. My kids generally prefer the ipad for the bigger screen but have used the nexus7 a few times too. The netflix app has locked up a couple times on them on the nexus7 but aside from that it has been uneventful. I don't think they really care.

I used my son as a lab rat and Galaxy Tab 10 won. A year ago I gave him an inexpensive Viewsonic Android tablet. At the age of 11 I figured he'd be a good judge of how it felt and worked. (I personally did not like it and would never use it, but I wanted to see if he could find a use for it).

After a few days he pretty much threw it aside (touch was unreliable, and other things, it just felt cheap.) I then did what I intended to do anyway: I bought him a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 that was on sale in CostCo. He hasn't put it down since. (Be careful what you wish for, right?)

He uses it for games, staying in touch with friends, scout updates, exploring places to travel next, you name it. Not once has it let him down. I still get to use it myself, and the Play store is useful for what I need, tho I'm not a big apps user on it.

I could have rooted the Gtablet, as it has a great processing core and tons of memory, but did I really want to spend my time on that? The answer is yes, but I couldn't. Too much to do elsewhere. No time for optimizing, as satisfying as that would have been.

The Samsung Galaxy is my choice as I favor the 'open market', but it's all in how it's implemented, and Samsung doesn't mess around. They set the standard for any device that wants to compete with Apple.

Not all of us live in your fantasy world where we can just turn work off for weeks on end. That may be possible in large companies where every job is somewhat backed up by 3 other people, but in many companies, there is no one for things to fall back on .... and hence emails do get checked on vacation. Personally, when I do not work, I do not get paid, and customers (yourself included no doubt), do not like waiting ... no matter the reason.